


Two in the Hand

by ladydragon76



Series: Roles [3]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Allusions to Sexual Assault, M/M, Mention of abusive violence, but nothing graphic or defined
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 23:24:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12046467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladydragon76/pseuds/ladydragon76
Summary: Summary:Prime ordered it, and so it was done.  Starscream's not happy, but his trinemates are less so.





	Two in the Hand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rizobact](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rizobact/gifts).



> **'Verse:** G1  
>  **Series:** Roles  
>  **Rating:** PG-13  
>  **Characters:** Jazz/Starscream, Thundercracker/Skywarp  
>  **Warnings:** Mention of abusive violence, allusions to sexual assault, but nothing graphic or defined.  
>  **Notes:** Happy Birthday to Rizobact!!  <333 It's not all that shippy... yet? But hopefully a little more Spy!Scream is still entertaining. ^_^

"What are you doing to Screamer? Where is he?" Skywarp demanded, his wings arched high and optics blazing from beyond the glowing energy bars of his cell. Thundercracker was still unconscious but visible across from him, but Starscream was nowhere to be seen and had not answered any of Skywarp's increasingly desperate shouts for him.

Jazz shook his helm and went back to _trying_ to read his datapad. And Starscream thought the mechs didn't care for him?

"Where is he?!"

"Mech, ya needa chill," Jazz replied without looking up. "Gettin' yourself all worked up when Star's fine."

There was a low, genuinely angry growl from Skywarp, but before he figured out anything else to say, Starscream himself stepped into the brig. "Stop teasing him, Jazz."

"But it's so fun." Jazz snickered as his audial horn was flicked and gave up on the datapad. "Prime approve full disclosure?" he asked as he stood from his chair and stuck the 'pad into his subspace.

"The frag?" Skywarp asked, wings dipping as he looked around and noticed that Starscream had walked in unescorted.

"He did," Starscream answered Jazz. "At this point, why keep it a secret?"

Jazz caught the undercurrent in the Seeker's tone. Pits, he knew Starscream was furious to wake up on the beach after having been drugged and spirited out of the _Victory_ , but Starscream also knew it was over the moment he handed Ratchet that grenade. The plan was in play. The virus planted- a nice subtle little thing they had been working on for months. The next time Shockwave called, his own systems would be infected too, the virus would activate, and that should frag up the drones and give the Seekers the chance to save themselves- assuming Jazz and Starscream couldn't get to Cybertron first to help them. The Earth-bound Decepticons would be fragged as well when all their systems crashed and wiped themselves upon rebooting.

The job until then was keeping Starscream and his trinemates safe.

"The frag is going on?!" Skywarp shouted, and Thundercracker finally jerked awake.

"Wha-" Thundercracker's optics dimmed as quickly as they had flared online, and he groaned and clutched his helm. "Why you yelling, Warp?"

"When you're both conscious and _calm_ , I'll explain everything," Starscream said, stepping into place between their cells.

Thundercracker groaned again as he pushed himself upright and took in the cell he was stuck in. "Aw frag. What'd you do?"

"More like what I did," Jazz offered then shrugged. "Under Prime's orders. But really that's just an excuse. I wanted ta bring him out ages ago."

"Jazz," Starscream sighed, and Jazz held up his hands in surrender.

"Starscream?" Thundercracker asked, sounding tired and worn down. There was something of surprise lacking in his expression, though Skywarp looked completely flummoxed.

Starscream must have noticed too, because all he did was dip his chin in the slightest of nods, and Thundercracker groaned again and covered his face with his hand.

"What? _What_?!" Skywarp shouted again. "Someone fragging tell me what the frack is going on!"

"I'm the spy," Starscream said in a resigned tone. Skywarp gaped, and some odd whine of sound escaped Thundercracker. "I've always been. I was an Autobot before we met, and I've been living in deep cover since I walked in and bowed at Megatron's feet for the first time."

"You're not funny," Skywarp snapped. "This isn't funny!"

"Do you see anyone laughing?" Starscream shook his helm. "Megatron's paranoia and Soundwave being too damn good at his job revealed a leak within the Decepticon ranks about four and half months ago. At first _we_ tried to ferret out the traitor, just Megatron, Soundwave, and myself. Of course, they failed because I was right there nudging the facts this way and that." He huffed a slight, humorless laugh. "You know... for about an hour, I think Megatron even suspected Soundwave was the traitor." Bright wings shrugged. "Then Megatron decided on capturing an Autobot, any Autobot, and making them talk. I had Ratchet tell Megatron pointblank that it was me, and the old fool didn't believe him. The last few months have been quiet because Megatron believes the traitor is lying low and knows we're on to him, but I've run out of time, and as Jazz said, Prime ordered me pulled out."

"Primus below, Starscream," Thundercracker moaned and dropped his hands to his lap to stare up at his trine leader.

"Prime has agreed to grant you asylum if you want it," Starscream said and paused a moment. "And freedom to return to Megatron if you don't."

"Oh yeah!" Skywarp snapped. "Go back and be the ones to tell him you're an Autobot? No fragging thanks! I like my spark _not_ ripped out of my fragging chest!"

"Shut up, Warp," Thundercracker said in the same tired voice. "Tell Prime I'll accept asylum."

Jazz felt the air pressure drop with Skywarp's wings as the Seeker's mouth fell open, his optics paling as he gawped at Thundercracker. "Are you _crazy_?!"

"No, but Megatron is," Thundercracker replied and stood to walk to the front of the cell. "He's gonna end up killing us. Our trine leader left him. I'm following."

Skywarp shook his head slowly before turning his back and going to sit on the small cot at the back of his cell, body twisted away from the rest of them as much as possible.

Thundercracker watched his trinemate and sighed. "Why? There's a story here, right?"

Jazz cycled his vents and nodded. "We needed someone inside, and I was already known," he said. "Met Starscream in the gutter after the Science Council decided he'd murdered poor Skyfire. Was actively lookin' for the right kinda mech ta let himself be recruited by this new revolutionary."

"War was coming," Starscream said, voice emotionless and optics on the floor. "He knew everything about me. The things I didn't talk about too, like the fact that I wasn't Platinum's creation." He looked up at Thundercracker. "I said no. I wanted nothing to do with the war, particularly the side which had always stood in my way."

"What changed?" Thundercracker asked, and Jazz felt a glimmer of real respect. What had changed- not an accusation. That was a damn sight better than Jazz was expecting. And Skywarp... Skywarp seemed to be reeling, and dare Jazz think it?- hurting.

"Back then, the Autobots were a faction inside the government," Jazz said, picking up this part of the story because it was more his than Starscream's. "Prowl recruited me from a jail cell- the first I'd ever seen from the inside despite my long list of crimes. Ya see, there've always been mechs who knew the Primacy was corrupt. Knew the Senate and Nobility were mostly slaggers and criminals. Nothin' more'n power-hungry mechs willin' ta kill, enslave, and destroy for their own immediate gain. So they started real quietly gatherin' more mechs that knew and hated the regime in charge."

Jazz hooked a thumb at his own chest. "Me, I was one of them. Brilliant thief, master of disguisin' myself in a race of people who were used ta lookin' past something as simple as looks." He shook his helm. "Ta this day, I honestly can't believe Prowl managed ta catch up ta me. Fragger nabbed me on a technicality during a VIP dance in this seedy little club where I was workin'. Thought he was just another drunk. Mech was good."

"And then..?" Thundercracker said, leadingly.

Jazz chuckled. "Then I had my already amazin' skills honed inta an honest ta Primus _covert operative_. I was a spy!" He flung his arms wide and pretended not to notice Skywarp peeking back out at him. "Ya see, Sentinel, Zeta, Nova? They weren't true Primes. They _carried_ the Matrix. They weren't bonded ta it. Primus didn't choose 'em, the Senate- who were mostly Towerlings, they chose 'em. And the few priests high up enough ta do anythin' about it? Well, they were happy ta sell a god off for a few trinkets and a promise for a bit more power. No true believers at the top by the time Sentinel was _chosen_."

"So why Starscream?" Skywarp asked. "Cuz he was a Towerling?"

Starscream shook his helm. "Because Megatron wanted Seekers."

"Megatron's rebellion was on track ta frag everything the Autobots had been workin' for. Oh, he sure talked the talk and looked like he was walkin' the walk, but I'd slipped in for a bit. I managed ta get close enough ta hear him chattin' up Soundwave about the idiot masses so eager ta follow. The right words said with the right inflection, and boom. Instant army of fools willin' ta lay their lives down for him so _he_ could topple the government and take over."

"That wasn't really a secret?" Thundercracker said with a scowl. "Not to those with any rank."

"But you had no rank until I came along," Starscream said, his wings twitching. "What Jazz learned was _well_ before the Senate even began to go after Megatron or the gladiatorial fights."

"A good vorn before," Jazz added. He crossed his arms and leaned his weight on one leg as he cast his memory back. "I wasn't as good then, and we had no idea that Soundwave was empathic and telepathic. He caught my shock, and my cover was blown. I escaped, but whenever I tried ta go back, no matter the disguise, Soundwave found me before I could even begin ta settle in. Then the skirmishes started and the rebellion really took off. It made working ta bring down the corruption from the inside harder. Mechs in power got paranoid. Sentinel ignored all advice ta the contrary and escalated even more. We _needed_ someone on the inside of Megatron's camp, and we needed someone fast."

Thundercracker shifted his gaze to Starscream, who nodded. "I've told you both about the first awful months on the streets after I was expelled. The things I did to survive." Thundercracker and Skywarp both dropped the gazes to the floor, shame coloring the energy of the brig.

"Stop that!" Starscream snapped. "I survived, and that was a skill I learned to use even better since! But nothing was getting better for me. Being a buymech was dangerous, and then Vos fell, and being a seeker in Iacon went from not safe to suicidal. Jazz found me just as I was finishing off a group of over-eager glitches, and got me away before the authorities arrived. He took a risk and told me everything he just told you."

"Glad ya took the job too," Jazz said with a grin, and Starscream snickered.

"Why's that funny?" Skywarp asked and stood up.

"Because he wouldn't have been able to allow me to live if I said no," Starscream answered and crossed his arms over his chest. "There was no way I was walking out of that room alive with that much information without being firmly on the Autobots' side."

Silence rang over the low hum of the energy bars, and Jazz let it hang for the count of ten. "But he did say yes, and after the sorriest bit of trainin' an operative ever received, we patted his aft, wished him luck, and sent him ta find Megatron."

"I already had the perfect story," Starscream said with a flick of his wings. "All I had to do was omit the bits about Jazz recruiting me. My history as you know it is completely true, and I was _exactly_ the kind of mech Megatron wanted. Angry. Disenfranchised. A victim of the nobility in that I was sold as a little more than a prized pet as a sparkling. He was all too willing to believe me, and while I had no idea at the time about Soundwave's abilities either, since I wasn't lying, since I was filled with rage, I was never suspected." His hands swung wide. "Ratchet told Megatron to his face, with me standing right there, that I was the spy, the leak, the traitor, and Megatron laughed in his face and affirmed his trust in my dedication to the Cause. Hate me, he might. Suspect, rightly so, that I'll happily murder him the first chance I get, but he _never_ doubted my dedication to the Decepticons."

Skywarp had stepped up as close to the bars as he could without getting zapped, a frown of confusion on his face. "But... what were you doing then?"

"At first?" Starscream asked and continued at the nod he received. "Just passing information on. Where was the next raid? What weapons were the Decepticons developing? Simple things. Think back, Skywarp. I never suggested Megatron was unsuited to leadership, and certainly never made an attempt on his life until _he_ began to become unstable. Unfortunately, by then, we were all fragged. Megatron had grown too powerful, and despite Optimus being a true Prime, hardly any Decepticons wanted to trust him. Deserters were very quickly, very _violently_ made examples of. You both know that.

"I took Winglord to gain a firmer control over the Seekers and protect them, but Megatron saw it as a move against him. To keep me in line, he separated us. He weakened the Decepticons by doing so too, but not by enough for the Autobots to win the war. He trusted me with the Cause, but not with command, so I played into it while desperately trying to stop him from burning the whole world."

"He burned it anyway," Thundercracker murmured, and only just caught himself from leaning forward against the bars.

Jazz made a command decision and went to turn off the power, and when he returned, he parked his aft on the floor and gestured Starscream down too. Skywarp and Thundercracker followed, and the four of them made themselves as comfortable as possible on the hard decking plates.

Starscream cycled his vents and rubbed at his forehead before picking the story back up. "He put so many mechs into stasis, and he _knew_ \- _**knew**_ I wouldn't push too far so long as my 'precious Seekers' were being held hostage. When we left Cybertron and woke up so long after, I figured they were all dead anyway. I was going to take him down."

"But?" Thundercracker asked, because there really was a genuine 'but' there. One Starscream and Jazz both chafed badly at.

"But Prime ordered no more deaths," Starscream answered with a tired sigh. "We had to assume at that point that those of us alive on Earth were the only Cybertronians left, and even one more lost spark was unconscionable. I was able to convince Megatron of the same thing until Shockwave's signal reached us, and -luckily- by then everyone else seemed to have taken the idea to spark."

Thundercracker shook his helm. "I never thought it in so many words, but you're right. The Autobots weren't shooting to kill, so we just... didn't either."

Skywarp frowned down at his feet as if they held all the answers but refused to tell him. "You're right," he said at length.

"What are we going to do now, though?" Thundercracker asked.

Jazz sat up straighter and took that answer upon himself. "Now, if ya're willin', we work on gettin' the Seekers away from Shockwave. Star's still Winglord, and Prime knows he can't interfere in that if things get hairy, but we're hopin' for a full peace."

"With Megatron alive?" Skywarp asked, voice rich in doubt.

"There's always spark prison," Jazz replied with a shrug because there was about a hundred and fifty percent chance everything they were saying was being watched by Prime himself at the moment. "We know Shockwave's up ta no good, so he certainly won't be allowed ta roam free either."

"Up to no good," Thundercracker repeated then snorted in revulsion. "If Starscream's your spy, then you know the Second Trine are Warp's creators. We've received trustworthy messages from them that would strip the colors off Prime's soft-sparked plating, but you're going to call it 'up to no good'?"

"They know," Starscream said and cast Jazz an annoyed look. "Believe me, they know, and you can ignore Jazz's turn of phrase. He thinks it's cute to ridiculously understate the seriousness of things."

Jazz opted not to make a witty remark as they really did want Starscream's trine to stay. Starscream loved them, and Jazz was fairly sure they weren't _as_ indifferent toward him as the Seeker believed. "He's right. We do know, and we're fraggin' sickened. So, what's it gonna be, Skywarp?" Jazz asked and looked over at the purple and black Seeker. "Thundercracker already agreed ta stay. Ya gonna hang with us while we rescue your folks and the others and drag the tyrant from his throne, or ya gonna hie off ta places unknown?"

Skywarp sneered, but it was short-lived, and when he glanced over at Thundercracker, dark wings sagged low again. "To the trine be true," he murmured, almost too low to hear, and had Jazz not turned off the energy to the cell bars, they really might not have heard him. "I'll take Prime's offer, but once we get all this slag sorted, 'Cons better not be treated like fragging slaves again. I joined for real reasons. Megatron maybe didn't believe what he was saying, or was only saying it to draw us in, but he was still right. The system was fragged, and I'll restart the whole damn war myself if even one mech -don't care if I hate him- is treated unjustly."

Jazz felt a real smile curve across his lips and gave Skywarp a nod. "Mech, slag goes that route, and I'll be on your side for the new war. But let's aim for peace and a bit of trust first, yeah? Prowl's always been against the corruption of the false Primes, and Optimus is the real deal and desperate ta save us and our world without returnin' ta the status quo of old."

"He's really bonded to the Matrix?" Thundercracker asked, helm tilted just a bit and optics brighter than they'd been during the discussion.

"He is," Starscream answered. "And if you ask him, he'll probably show you. I demanded proof myself and he didn't even hesitate."

~ | ~

"Ain't no one but Prime gonna be ok with ya volunteerin' him ta expose his spark like that," Jazz said as he settled on the berth against Starscream's side.

Starscream shrugged carelessly. Optimus Prime would do it, and neither Thundercracker nor Skywarp would try to kill him. Starscream would be present if he could help it. "They're going to need proof, and they won't be the last ones. Just tell Ironhide to stick close and shoot first."

Jazz snickered and curled closer with a soft hum. "How's this gonna work now? I don't mind ya bunkin' with me at all- rather prefer it, but once your trine's out of the brig, they're gonna want ya with them."

"No they won't," Starscream replied in a whisper.

Starscream shut his optics and turned his face away as Jazz pushed himself up for the express purpose of looking Starscream in the optics. "Sweetspark, they love ya. Maybe it ain't quite healthy. Maybe it's all kinds of mixed up and messy, but they want ya close, and while I'm always happy ta have ya right here, there's gonna come a night real soon where ya're gonna have ta figure out which berth ta spend which night in."

Starscream frowned a little and looked up at Jazz. "Which berth on which night?"

"I ain't the possessive sort. Not sure about Thundercracker or Skywarp, but if ya wanna spend some nights with them and some with me, that'll be fine by me," Jazz said and smiled. He reached up and nudged his visor back to expose those pale, rare optics of his. "I know how trines work, remember? And ya know what, if there ain't room for me, then that's ok too. I just want ya fraggin' happy. Think ya've earned it- with a heap o' interest."

Starscream shook his helm a little and huffed a bit of a laugh even as his optics began to feel too hot. "I'll deal with them if you're right. I can finally have _this_?" he said with a squeeze around Jazz's middle. "I'm not giving it up. Not even for them."

Jazz's smile grew, and in the next instant, soft, warm lips pressed over Starscream's. It was chaste and sweet, and over far too quickly, but Starscream knew they were both fragging well exhausted. "Night, Star-baby."

"Good-night, Jazz," Starscream purred with a grin of his own. And may they all survive long enough for Starscream to see if Jazz was right about Thundercracker and Skywarp wanting him too.


End file.
